Friday, October 03, 2008
DAWSON SPRINGS – Although the Dawson Springs boys’ soccer team has only been in existence two years, the program has had plenty of time to develop a rivalry with Hopkins County Central and Thursday evening the Storm maintained their undefeated record against the Panthers, but only after a tight first half.
Central defeated Dawson Springs 6-1 to increase its all-time record to 3-0 in the short rivalry, but the Panthers (0-14-0) came out with plenty of determination in the first 40 minutes in an attempt to avenge an earlier 1-0 loss to the Storm (3-11-2) on Sept. 13.
For Central, it was the team’s second win in as many games. The Storm have collected 10 goals in the team’s past two games after scoring just nine goals in the first 14 games.
“We’ve been keying on a lot of shooting, a lot of shooting,” Central co-coach David Starks said. “Every day in practice, I bet we took, with our forwards, 100 shots. That’s what we’ve been really working on, getting shots on goal, and that’s been a big key to our game.”
Central’s Cody Heady scored the first of his two goals with 29:39 left in the first half.
“I got a great throw-in from (Wesley) Ipock, switched it to the right foot, just shot it and it went upper 90, had an out-step curve to it,” Heady said.
Thirty-seven seconds later, Panther Ethan Scott fired one to the back of the net to knot the score at one goal.
The goal marked just the ninth of the year for the upstart Panthers and it made the team hungry for its first win of the year.
“We have struggled in the scoring column this year,” Dawson Springs coach Randall Campbell said. “Any time we can score a goal, whether it’s against Central or any one, it’s a big boost for us because it’s something we’re having a hard time learning how to do.”
The Panthers defense used the momentum to lock down the Storm, but Central scored twice in the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 3-1 lead.
Amid a cluster of Storm and Panther players fighting for control of the ball in front of the Dawson Springs goal, Central’s Zach Sisk found the loose ball and sent it into goal for his second of the season.
Starks said the team made some switches, putting Sisk and Tristen Youngblood at forward and moving Heady, Ipock and Carlos Diaz at midfield to help stir the offense.
“I came up as forward and I’ve never played it this year,” Sisk said. “It was a good experience because I got a goal. I usually play midfield.”
Youngblood recorded his own goal three minutes later after a direct kick deflection from Diaz.
Starks described Youngblood as Central’s “future up front” and added, “After (Dawson Springs) scored that first goal, you could really see the momentum swing, but I think after we scored a couple, our boys started playing a little bit harder.”
In the second half, Central slowly pulled away despite a determined Dawson Springs squad.
Ipock scored on a penalty kick through the goalie’s legs at the 30:37 mark, and nine minutes later Heady took a pass from Youngblood, dribbled through traffic and shot to take a 5-1 lead.
Ipock scored the game’s final goal with 7:15 remaining on a low-lining direct kick that bounced off the left post and into the goal.
Although Central methodically took care of business in the second half, the game’s first half was marked by a lot of physical play between the two teams.
“It was definitely physical,” Panther senior Carson Labrado said. “I liked how the refs let us play, they didn’t call it too strict where any contact was a foul immediately.”
Campbell called it a “very well-officiated game.”
Sisk said Central’s aggressiveness has actually been one of the reasons for the team’s recent surge, but Thursday’s game with the Panthers provided plenty to play for.
“We just wanted it because we kind of have a rivalry between us,” he said.
Heady said he could notice how much Dawson Springs wanted the game.
“I think since we only beat them 1-0 last time, they were planning on beating us on their Senior Night,” he said.
Campbell said despite losing by five, there was not much separating the two clubs.
“They [the goals] were really just six simple mistakes,” he said “When we made those little mistakes, that just comes to inexperience being our second year with the program, where they’ve got a little more experience than we do.
Dawson Springs senior Jon Snell agreed the score did not reflect the competitive play and said, “It should have been closer than that.”
As for stepping up their aggressive play against the rivaled Storm, Campbell said, “We don’t have football, so this is the equivalent for Dawson to a football game for us.”
Central next plays 7 p.m. Monday at Trigg County while Dawson will play 7:30 p.m. Monday at Union County.
No comments:
Post a Comment